Afghan officials welcome drawdown; others dismayed

KABUL, Afghanistan President Barack Obama's decision to bring half of America's 66,000 troops home within a year was welcomed Wednesday by Afghan officials who have long agitated to control their country, but was greeted with dismay by Afghans who think America failed to keep its promise of a better and safer life.

“This is something Afghanistan has wanted for so long now,” President Hamid Karzai's office said.

While Obama said the first 34,000 troops will leave Afghanistan within a year, no decision has been made so far on how many U.S. troops could remain after December 2014, when most foreign forces will have left. “We welcome the decision,” Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said. “We are ready to fill the vacuum and we are ready to take full responsibility for security in 2013.”

But others said they were taken aback that so many American troops would leave even before the 2014 deadline. Persistent violence and a spate of so-called insider attacks by Afghan troops against their foreign partners have raised concern about the readiness of government forces to take over their own security.

Former army Gen. Amrullah Aman said he thinks the Afghan army is too weak to defend the country.

“They don't have equipment, there is no air force,” he said.

The Taliban welcomed the drawdown, but said the entire U.S.-led coalition should leave immediately.

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